


My Own Mask

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Everyone is Dead, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-01
Updated: 2014-03-05
Packaged: 2018-01-14 04:30:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1252933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anonymous asked:<br/>In case you need prompts still~ AH OT6 Masquerade dance with the dearly departed anyone?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. My Own Mask

The masks that surrounded him are all decorated intricately. There’s only one plain one, one that’s pure white. It stands out on the man who wears it because nothing else is that bright, that colorful. The entire outfit is black and red, yet it doesn’t feel out of place. The black suit is sleek but it’s covered with splashes of red as if someone had thrown paint at it, accompanied by a black and red tie. It draws Geoff to the man, and soon he finds himself starting to appreciate the entire group by the white mask.

There’s a taller man with red hair next to him, whose mask covers the majority of his face. It’s deep brown and red, and ends in the shape of sharp teeth. The top corners curl up like ears and even indent. Unlike White Mask, his matches his outfit. His suit is brown and red, with a yellow tie that doesn’t match anything but doesn’t stand out either. Geoff dubs him Animal Mask.

Next to Animal Mask is a slightly thinner man. His mask only covers the upper left half of his face. It’s a deep violet, which makes the blue of his uncovered eye shine brightly. The mask is decked out in glitter, but at the very top and along the sides there’s a bright red as if it was on fire. His suit is a light lavender, with a bright green tie that’s an eyesore and seems to have been cut or burnt. Geoff decides to call this one Shimmer Mask, and laughs at himself.

Just to Shimmer Mask’s right is a man with a more muscled build. His mask is black and brown and covers his entire face. Any time he moves, the mask seems to drop something. His suit looks like it was a nice baby blue at one point, but has been smattered with the same black and brown that covers his mask. His bowtie is undone, along with all of the top of the suit as if he felt like he was choking. Geoff raises an eyebrow and calls him the Gravel Mask.

On Gravel Mask’s arm is a bearded man. The man has a bigger build but is no less attractive than the rest of the group. His mask is the oddest to Geoff, however. It covers the bottom half of his face and is a different color every time he looks. It always is some mix of green and blue, though he could swear there’s some bubbles on it. The man’s suit is plain and brown, with a green tie that’s scrunched up like it’d been wet only moments before. Geoff doesn’t have time to dub the last man before the man notices him, and asks for a dance. He doesn’t want to be rude, so he accepts.

The man introduces himself as Jack, and asks Geoff how he ended up here. Geoff can’t answer- he never has an answer to this question- he’s much too busy being distracted by how cold his hands feel where they meet the other man’s. How it almost feels wet, and how every step is heavier with each new note. Jack takes his silence in good mirth and thanks him for the dance by kissing his cheek. His eyes seem sad, almost pitying, as he promises that one day they’ll have more than one dance together. That they’ll spend hours in each other’s company- the day Geoff knows how he ends up there.

Shimmer Mask takes the next dance and introduces himself as Gavin. His hands are cold to the touch, but every moment more that Geoff spends holding them burns. They talk and joke, Geoff even gets to say his own name this time and thank Gavin for the dance, but it’s over quickly. Gavin asks when he’ll join them, looking impatient, and Geoff can only answer soon. He doesn’t know why the answer is soon, he just knows it is.

A quick break for alcohol is interrupted by Animal Mask who wants the next dance. His name is Michael and he’s loud. He’s loud, he’s angry, he’s funny, and he’s wonderful. Just like the others, his hands are cold. Except where they touch Geoff feels a sharp pain, as if he’s being bitten. At the end of the song, Michael tells him that they can wait- but he needs to stop visiting them. Geoff doesn’t understand.

He’s quickly swept away from his confusion into a dance with White Mask. Ray, the man tells him. The man is soft spoken and a great dancer, with new moves every step. His hands are covered by gloves but Geoff can still feel their cold through them. Everywhere they touch, Geoff feels like he’s in for a sudden shock. Like something just happened he hasn’t had enough time to process yet. At the end of the dance, Ray smiles sadly and tells Geoff that everyone only lives once. Geoff isn’t sure why that’s important.

Gravel Mask is the last one to dance with him. Ryan, he says his name is, as they don’t dance so much as step and talk. His hands aren’t as cold as the other’s were. They’ve still got a small amount of warmth left, but where they touch Geoff it feels like he’s rolling in dirt. Every step, more of the black and brown substance falls off the man but Geoff isn’t worried about it. At the end of the dance, Ryan doesn’t smile. He doesn’t ask how Geoff got there, or when he’ll join them. Or at least, Geoff doesn’t think he smiles- the mask covers everything. There’s a muffled sound that reaches his ears and reminds him of crying but he doesn’t think that’s right. Very quietly, Ryan asks him when he’ll stop torturing them with short visits. Asks him when he’ll either stop visiting or join them for good. Geoff can’t answer.

He stares at the group as they come closer again, and vague imprints begin to show up. There’s something right infront of him but Geoff can’t place it. Instead he reaches up to take off his own mask only to touch his own skin. That’s not right. He should be wearing one too, right? When he looks up to the group, they’re gone. Instead all Geoff can see is the roof of the house where he once lived with all of them.

It’s morning. He’s left them behind again. Geoff can no longer remember what day it is, if he has work that day, or if he needs to get out of bed. All he can remember are hurt eyes and questions he has no answer to. He sits up, looking at the bed that’s enormous without the boys there. There’s no solace in more sleep, but there’s no solace in the world for him anymore. His boys are dead, and he sees them every night in a dream he can’t join or get out of. Leaning back against the headboard, Geoff cries.


	2. Gavin's Mask

He flicks the lighter on. Then off. Then on. Then off. Then on. Gavin pauses to stare at the fire, pulling it closer to his face. He’s not at home right now- or, he supposes he’s at one of his two homes. This time, he’s in England with his family. His flight back is tomorrow morning. Frowning, he blows out the flame and tosses his lighter on his bed. If he was home, he could be curled around Michael. He could be laying on Jack with Ray’s hand in his, Geoff’s arm around his middle, and Ryan’s hand through his hair. They could all be watching a movie together, talking together, or just generally being with each other.

He’s been gone for a week, and Gavin misses home.

Dan comes in his room to wish him good night and good travels. It’s tradition between them to always say something to each other before the other leaves. It just helps them travel with an easier mind. Gavin wishes him the same and curls up around his phone in bed. If he can stay up just a little later, Geoff will call. Just a little later. Just a little….

When Gavin wakes up, it hurts. His entire left side hurts so much. It burns and there’s screaming. So much screaming. It takes him a few minutes to realize the screaming is coming from him. It hurts so much. Everything burns, he can’t even sit up because it’s too painful. Eventually he passes out from smoke inhalation. When he opens them next, all he sees is a bunch of nicely dressed people. Some are missing limbs, some are blind, some don’t appear to have anything wrong with them, but after talking to a few he realizes something rather quickly. They’re all dead. Every single last one is dead and this is how they remember themselves. Idly, he looks down at himself. He’s wearing a suit he used to love with a green tie that was his mother’s favorite on him. Gavin checks the crowd for his family, but they’re not there. They made it out.

What he doesn’t know is how the fire started. His family finds out- a gas line had been punctured in the night. Someone had flicked a lighter on during the night and the whole place went up in flames. Gavin doesn’t know that they buried him in that suit with that tie. Doesn’t know how his boys cried, how Geoff had to leave the service earlier because he couldn’t speak. How Michael had to pry Jack away from the coffin because they needed to leave. How Ray and Ryan simply held hands every day for the rest of that week as if they were afraid the other would disappear.

What he does know, is that they visit. When the music gets louder, they’ll show up. Geoff and Jack always show up first. They’ll be off in their own little world until Michael joins them. Then Ray. Ryan doesn’t always join them. He’s a rare sighting, but it’s a treat each time.

However, even though they show up they don’t recognize him. It’s frustrating, having to reintroduce himself to his lovers every time he sees them. Gavin stops kissing them the second week. It’s too painful because they’ll freeze up like they’ve been burned. He wonders if their Let’s Plays are still funny without him. He wonders who bikes to get bevs with Geoff now. He wonders, as the dead do, what happens to the space he used to fill.

One night he walks over to the punch bowl. When he looks down in it, he can see his boys. They can’t hear him, but they’re alive and well. They’re coping best they can. If he swirls the punch, he can see his family instead. He can see them defending him, trying to insist that it wasn’t him who caused the fire. Gavin stays near the punch bowl each night, watching until his boys join him. He learns how their lives are going, he learns how they’re coping- or not coping, he learns how his empty desk is never filled. He watches and waits for each night, when he can see his boys again.


	3. Michael's Mask

Home isn’t a nice place to be anymore. Neither is work. Even worse, he’s restless. He can’t sit still anymore because he’s got too much pent up anger. Gavin is dead. The others don’t seem to be able to accept it but Michael does. Gavin’s dead and he’s not coming back and there’s nothing they can do. The idiot was in a fire. Which he may or may not have started himself, dependent on who you listened to. Michael knows better than to believe the fuckass would have actually lit a fire, and all the fans joking about how his boyfriend harmed his own family is too upsetting to deal with. Ryan’s the one who quietly goes in and corrects them.

Michael can’t even record ragequits. He’s too upset- the rage comes before he ever turns on the game. Three weeks after Gavin’s death, when everything seems normal again, he goes walking. He doesn’t want to go any where in particular, he just wants to kill some energy. When he walks he bumps into some burly dude. He doesn’t apologize, he curses at the fucker and keeps walking.

The dog goes unnoticed until it’s too late.

It’s a half black lab half pitbull and it’s biting his arms. Michael tries his best to fight it off but the moment he lowers his hands it’s tearing at his throat. He stares in mute rage and shock for ten seconds as he bleeds to his death on the sidewalk of some street he doesn’t know. He closes his eyes and when he opens them, Gavin’s standing there.

The british man is crying like crazy and has him wrapped up so quickly that Michael can’t process what’s going on. He returns the embrace without a second thought and that’s when it hits him. This is Gavin. He’s hugging Gavin- who is dead.

Frowning, he pulls away a little and asks, “Gavin? Am I dead?”

"Yeah. You’re death, you smegging idiot. You couldn’t just bloody apologize?" The British man replies, kissing him.

"No way. Besides, now I get to see you again." He tries to play it off and smiles at Gavin, but the man frowns.

"I got to see you every night and I was happy because you were alive and well!"

"I wasn’t well. None of us are well without you. You saw us every night?"

"You don’t remember?"

"No."

"Oh..Well. Just wait. You’ll understand."

"You aren’t going to tell me?"

"Nope. Not as much fun. Besides, it’s not my place. Nice suit, by the way. I thought you only owned a black one."

"Suit?" For the first time since opening his eyes, Michael actually looks around himself. He can see some people he knew once, in the crowd, and he can see that Gavin is in the suit they buried him in. Eyesore tie and all. When he looks down at himself, he raises an eyebrow. "I do only own that black one…Or at least I did."

The music suddenly seems louder and Michael follows Gavin to the middle of the room, where Geoff and Jack stand. The two look exhausted, depressed, and lost. They don’t seem to fit in with everyone else here. He calls out to them but they don’t recognize him. They don’t know who he is. It hurts, but he reintroduces himself to them both and spends a dance with them each. Ray shows up a little later but doesn’t know him either. It hurts the most because he’s known Ray for the longest of any of them. Ray was his best friend for so long. Ryan doesn’t show that night, and Gavin tells him that’s normal before dragging him to the punch bowl.

They watch together, and Michael doesn’t know how Gavin could deal with this. How he could hold it together nightly when they don’t remember and still keep watch over them with no one there to help. He’s glad he wasn’t first because he’s not sure he could of. He’s glad he wasn’t first because it means he’s got Gavin to lean on as he tries to make sense of the fact that he’s dead and the boys aren’t coping like they should be.


	4. Ray's Mask

He was just walking back to work after grabbing lunch. The gents could use it, and he knew that the other lads wouldn’t want them to keep starving themselves like this. Ray was going to surprise them with food and then the four of them would spend some time together. It’d been a month since Michael’s funeral. He shouldn’t have gone alone. He should have asked for a ride.

The convenience store was being robbed. Ray was calling the police when the robber came outside. He tried to duck around a corner. At first, he thought he’d made it in time. But then there was this sharp intense pain. Ray fell, both the surprise lunch he’d gotten the boys and his phone fell out of his hands. He stared in surprise at the pure white sidewalk as it was slowly tainted by a deep, ugly color that could only be blood. As he stared at it, everything else sounded muted. There were sirens and then someone was moving him but he couldn’t feel them. He couldn’t feel anything. Closing his eyes, he left himself in their hands.

When he opened his eyes, Michael and Gavin were there. They were all over him, trying to ask him what happened. Trying to ask how the boys were, trying to ask everything at once. But they fell silent once Gavin touched his hand. Ray just raised an eyebrow.

"Wow, your hand’s pretty cold Vav. Nice mask, by the way. I like the flaming image it gives you. Yours too, Michael." He nods to them both, smiling.

"Masks?" Gavin asks, eyeing Michael.

"We’re not wearing masks.." Michael reaches out to hold Ray’s other hand and freezes. "Gavin.."

"Yes you are! Do I have one too? Please tell me I get a cool one." Ray tightens his grip on both their hands, but his hands are cold..So cold. His left feels like it’s holding dry ice and his right feels like it’s trying to leave his body.

"Michael..I don’t think he’s.." Gavin trails off, looking both sad and relieved.

"I don’t think he’s…either, Gavin. Ray, can I ask a favor?" Michael leans forward, and Ray takes the moment to appreciate the way his mask almost seems like it has fur.

"Sure, what’s up?"

"Tell the gents that we’re okay. That we’re watching over them and they better fucking take care of themselves or I will come down there and haunt them so hard."

"Should I also tell them you love them and they’re idiots?"

"Yeah. You always did know what I wanted to say."

"Well. You know." Ray blinks and when his sight focuses again, he’s in a hospital room. There’s nurses everywhere, but everything is blurry. If he squints, he’s pretty sure he can see the gents by the doorway. He tries to call out to them but the nurse shushes him. Ignoring her, he sits up and calls out to them again. Jack pushes through the nurses and holds his hand. Ryan and Geoff go to the other side of the bed.

They’re talking. They’re saying something but he can’t understand them. It just sounds like white noise. Quietly, he tries to give them Michael’s message but it comes out muffled. Everything sounds muffled. There’s a lot of chaotic sounds when he closes his eyes, but it feels like relaxing. All the pain is gone. All his worries are gone. When he opens his eyes, he’s back with Michael and Gavin.

There’s no masks this time.

The first time the gents visit and don’t remember him, Ray’s heartbroken. He doesn’t want to dance with these men. He wants to dance with the men who love him and spent so much time on him. Two weeks later, he gives up and just reintroduces himself every night with a smile. Except, he notices, to Jack. Jack never forgets any of their names.

When the night passes, Ray dances with Gavin and Michael. They’ll dance and then they’ll go watch the remains of their family in the punchbowl. Ray never searches the crowd. He doesn’t think he could stand meeting a dead relative when he can’t even stand meeting an alive lover.


	5. Ryan's Mask

Ryan was on his way to Ray’s funeral. The last of Team Lads had died only a few days before- all for just witnessing something he shouldn’t have. It made Ryan upset because the robbers could have just knocked Ray out and left. Instead the fuckers shot him. He got safely to the cemetery when it happened. Two people approached him, telling him to get back in his car.

"Why?" He asked, not moving.

"Just get back in your damn car." The smaller one said, moving his jacket to reveal a gun. "For everyone’s sake."

"Listen, I’m just here for a funeral-"

"We know what you’re here for, Fag. Back in your car." Ryan obeyed, only after deciding that he couldn’t take them both on his own. "Good. Now do everything we say or we’ll kill the other two bitches too, got it?"

Ryan nodded, sending a quick warning text to Geoff and Jack before his captors noticed he had his phone. He drove them to a small field and when they all got out, they forced him to sit on his knees. Ryan did such at gun point, and waited for one of them to be distracted to make his move.

When the taller one walked away, he hit the smaller one in the groin. When his captor fell with a squeak and a pained face, Ryan grabbed a hold of the idiot’s head and twisted until there was a satisfying crack. Quickly, he ducked behind the car to get out of gun range for the second captor. Ryan didn’t know there was a third person until there was a sharp pain in the back of his head. Passing out was not painless.

When he regained consciousness, he was choking. There was something sliding down his throat and clogging his nose. Opening his eyes was painful and no help- everything was pitch black. His chest and stomach hurt as if someone was laying weights on top of them. Breathing was difficult and painful, but didn’t last long. Eyes close, Ryan mentally apologized to his boys.

The next time he opened his eyes, he was at a party. Surrounded by people he didn’t know, Ryan did his best not to panic until he heard three familiar voices. He followed them to the buffet table and then stopped. Ryan stood just out of sight and listened.

"Vav, do you think they’ll find him in time."

"I bloody hope so or the bobby aren’t doing their jobs."

"Shut the fuck up, of course they will. Ryan will live for years to come with Geoff and Jack."

"We’ll get to see them though, right?"

"As long as they sleep."

"Look! Ryan’s still breathing!"

"He is?"

"Thank fuck."

Stepping forward, Ryan looked into the punch bowl. He watched as his own body struggled to stay alive and felt detached. That wasn’t him. He was already here. Ryan was watching himself die but it didn’t feel like it. Michael was the first to notice him. He smiled at his former lover but the man frowned behind the animal mask.

"What do you want? We’re trying to make sure our lover doesn’t join us." Michael hisses at him, and Ryan stares in mute shock. Doesn’t he recognize him?

"I-"

"Michael I don’t think they’re going to find him what if they don’t?" Gavin interrupts, grabbing the man’s hand. Ryan can only try to fumble out what he was saying.

"Yo, who’s the new dude?" Ray asks, leaning over the other two and only sparing them a glance.

"I don’t-" Ryan tries to speak but they don’t listen to him.

"Michael he stopped breathing."

"Are you sure?"

"Look his chest isn’t doing the fluttery rise thing!"

"Where the fuck are the police?"

"Still about two miles out."

"Bloody hell they won’t make it! Where’s Jack and Geoff?"

"They’re still at Ray’s funeral."

"Guys?" Ryan calls softly, as he leans over the punch bowl. He watches his chest have spasms, as if it’s trying so hard. He doesn’t feel anything though.

"Woah, dude, your mask is falling apart. Literally. You okay, live one?" Ray asks, hand reaching out to catch what looks like falling dirt but it dissipates before it ever reaches his hand.

"I’m dying?" Ryan asks them, staring down at the punchbowl. "I’m dying."

"You okay, mate?" Gavin asks, trying to distract Ryan.

"I’m watching myself die, Gavin. And I don’t feel anything."

"Ry..?"

"Do you think it’ll take long for them to find out?"

"Them?"

"Jack and Geoff..I hope it takes long."

"Why?"

"I don’t want them to go straight from mourning Ray to mourning me. It’s not fair. Or healthy."

"Life isn’t fair or healthy. Is that really you, Ryan?" Michael asks, and when Ryan looks their masks are all transparent. There’s still the dirt falling from his face and he nods.

"Yeah…Is this really what being dead is like?"

"Yup. I don’t think this is all there fucking is because there’s doors at the end of the room, but this is death."

"This is better than I thought, I guess." He watches as his chest collapses and there’s no more dirt falling in front of his face. There’s nothing. Nothing to tell him he’s really dead. Nothing to confirm. No sudden feeling. He doesn’t even feel any fuller than he did when he first arrived here. Ryan’s just there. That’s it.

When the night comes, and the music gets louder, Geoff is the first to appear. Ryan has to reintroduce himself but does such with a smile. He feels again, with Geoff there, and everything almost starts to click into place. The music gets louder again and then there’s Jack. When Jack catches sight of Ryan, he bursts into tears and holds onto the man. He keeps muttering something vague about how Geoff and him were looking for any sign of him but this wasn’t what Jack wanted. Ryan’s just happy he doesn’t have to reintroduce himself.

Jack doesn’t leave his side, and he keeps apologizing. Ryan doesn’t understand why. He’s the one who’s dead. Shouldn’t he be saying he’s sorry for leaving them behind? When the night comes to an end, and the gents vanish, Ryan joins the lads at the punch bowl for the second time. Together, they watch as Geoff and Jack get greeted first thing in the morning by the police. They watch as they struggle to hold it together long enough to bury him. They watch as the two men truly lose it and refuse to talk to anyone but each other. They all watch as Team OG tries to understand how their relationship fell back to just the two of them so quickly, when others were so young. They watch and for the first time since Ryan died, he cries.


	6. Jack's Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Confession time, this was the hardest to write because I’m a suicide survivor. I actually had to even promise I’d stop writing completely if I so much as cried. Anyways.

He wasn’t dying. He wasn’t dead. Sure, Jack was insecure. He never felt like he belonged any place and had once given a final end some thought. But there was nothing really wrong with him. Except that he remembered. Jack remembered every masquerade he went to. Remembered every dance he had with his boys like it would be their last one. He remembers having regular dreams. Remembers nights in which he had no dreams at all. And now, he remembers visiting the dead each night.

When it’s just Gavin, it’s short and sweet. It’s one dance with the dead and then one with the dead because sometimes Geoff needs a familiar hand when he can’t handle something. Jack remembers how Geoff used to have to figure out who Gavin was each night. How Geoff used to try his hardest to put a past behind the British man and never could. Jack remembers when Geoff stopped trying to remember.

When it was Gavin and Michael, his hands were always sore when he woke up. They weren’t harmed and there was nothing medically wrong with him, they just ached. It was two dances with the dead, and then one with Ray just so he could hold the last lad close a little longer. It steadied him, through their deaths.

When it was all of team lads, it begun to hurt. Nothing was physically wrong, but he felt so tired. Jack was just so exhausted. It was three dances with the dead and then no more because he simply couldn’t handle anymore. Every day, getting out of bed was more and more taxing. He didn’t want to. His body didn’t want to. There was no motivation for him to. Until Ryan and Geoff would talk to him sweetly, kissing him and helping him up.

He remembers the night Ryan went missing. They’d each gotten a text just saying, “Going to be late, I got taken away by people who have business with me”. They waited. Ryan never showed. The searched every place the two of them could think of, but they had to admit defeat. They turned home and waited there, holding hands. Jack remembers that Geoff fell asleep first. He remembers how he cried on the sleeping man’s shoulders, not sure if he could physically deal with what sleeping might mean. He remembers passing out and waking up to a man that can only be Ryan. Remembers thinking that it’s not fair.

Four dances with the dead is so physically exhausting that Jack can’t eat. He can’t get up in the morning until Geoff needs him. There’s no physical reason for it, he just can’t. He feels like he’s failed. Like nothing matters.

Jack remembers the day they decide to go swimming. Just the two of them, completely alone. The water will help them relax, Geoff said. Geoff was right. Jack laid at the bottom of the pool, eyes open, watching the air bubbles escape him. After a while, he floats back up and gets a fresh lungful of air. He’s not trying to float, he just does. Jack knows that Geoff keeps talking to him, but he doesn’t hear it. He can’t listen, there’s whispers that sound like the boys every time he spends more breath in the water.

Jack doesn’t remember drowning. He doesn’t remember Geoff’s crying or how Geoff dragged him out and tried to revive him. He does remember how shocked the boys look when he greets them. How they marvel at his mask that splashes away after a moment. How Ryan looks so sad, but he can’t understand why. Jack’s with them now. That’s what’s important.

The first night Geoff visits alone, Jack cries.

He shouldn’t have left the man. Geoff’s suit has holes in it halfway up his biceps like someone was digging their nails into him. Geoff looks hollow, sad, and so confused. Jack can’t tell him anything that will help. He wants to tell Geoff to be happy. To live on for all of them. But he’s not an idiot. He’s not an optimist. He can see it won’t happen. Yet, neither can he tell the man to just die. So he settles for something in the middle.

Each night, when Geoff visits, Jack grabs the first dance. He needs to dance with Geoff. Needs to reintroduce himself. Needs to smile and tell him how sorry he is. How much of an idiot he is. Needs to hear the automatic response of how he’s Geoff’s first idiot, even if Geoff doesn’t remember him. He needs to ask, every night, how Geoff gets here. Needs to know if he understands or remembers yet. So Jack cuts in for the first dance every night, and can do nothing but wait. While he waits, at least, he never feels out of place. He never feels like he needs to leave or stands out. It’s not surprising.

After all, Jack’s belonged with the dead for most his life.


	7. Geoff's Mask

He wakes up crying every night. He doesn’t know why he cries, and he never remembers what his dream was. Geoff just always has the feeling that he’s forgetting something important. Life without his boys seems worthless, but he hasn’t given up on it either. There’s still things to be done. He just can’t perform them with the same enthusiasm he used to. He can’t do anything the way he used to.

While out grocery shopping, he comes across a plain, white mask. Geoff doesn’t understand what calls him to it. Or why he needs it. What he does know is that he ends up buying it. That he hangs it on the wall over what used to be their bed and he greets it each morning. The devastation lessens a little when he does, but Geoff doesn’t know why. He tries to find other masks, never knowing really what he’s actually looking for. Only the colors he knows they need repeat in his head- purple, red, yellow, black, brown, blue, green..

But he can never find the right masks. They’re not the right masks for them- he doesn’t know who them is, but he knows that they matter. It’s so frustrating- especially since Geoff doesn’t know why the white mask can’t hang alone. He’s only slightly surprised when he finds himself in the local craft store, buying blank masks. He buys acrylic paints, sequins, lace, colored sand, hot glue, brushes, and other odds and ends. There’s no reason why he needs them, he just knows he does.

He sits down, when he gets home, with all of the materials laid out in front of him on the floor. Geoff stares at them, with no idea where to start, until he passes out of exhaustion in front of them. When he wakes up with tears in his eyes, he has a starting point. He takes one of the plain masks and cuts it along the bottom into jagged triangle shapes. Using some of the scrap, he makes ears for the top of each side and hot glues them in place. While he gives them time to dry, he picks up the next mask and cuts it until only the upper left remains. It’s all he needs for that one. With the third mask he fills in the eyes so it’s completely solid. The fourth he cuts the top off completely. He ignores the fifth one- he doesn’t know why he has it. Then he returns to the first.

He takes the acrylics and paints it a dark brown, including the ‘ears’ and then moves on to the second. That one is a rich, deep purple that looks pompous to him. The third he paints completely black. The fourth is a soft, light blue. Geoff goes back to the first mask and stares. It’s not right yet, there’s still something wrong. He tears out some of the bristles on his brush as he does such and the idea hits him. Without a second thought, he adds the torn bristles to the mask until it looks like it’s got fur. Then he adds some red marks on top of that, and red that looks like splatters along the bottom of the mask.

Geoff sets the first mask aside, it’s done.

He moves on to the second mask and adds sequins. They’re terrible, it looks awful, but it’s right. He covers it completely and then accidentally spills glitter over it. When he tries to clean it up, he can’t bring himself to because it somehow looks better that way. It takes him a while to figure out what to do with the edges of the mask. Eventually he takes a lighter to it, just on a feeling. He burns a little off every end and then paints a thin red line next to the marks the fire left.

Something in his heart unclenches as he puts that one aside.

The third takes him a while to figure out what to do with. He adds the black and brown sand to it, but only in clumps. Geoff also makes sure that some can still fall because for some reason he needs it to. The mask needs to have falling dirt and he doesn’t actually know why.

Moving the third one aside spreads dusty sand everywhere, but Geoff almost smiles at it.

The fourth one is the hardest. He doesn’t know what to do with it. Eventually he covers it with cyan lace, then baby blue, then emerald, the sapphire until the lace is layer in such a way that Geoff can’t tell what color it is anymore. It’s a bit bulky, but he'd like it because it's fitting. Except Geoff isn't sure who he is.

When he moves the fourth one aside, it slides across the floor like a leaf in a river. Geoff doesn’t know why it reminds him of that, but he smiles and finds himself tearing up anyways.

The fifth mask he puts away. There’s nothing for it yet. No design, no life behind it, no reason for it to have any decorations or not to have any. Geoff knows he needs to save it though. It’s a feeling in his gut. So he puts it away and he hangs the other four masks along the wall with the original plain white mask. It becomes habit not only to greet the masks in the morning, but to wish them good night as well.

The first mask helps him feel less devastated. The second makes him feel less lonely. The third makes him feel silly for every feeling anything negative. The fourth gives him the strength to go about his day. The fifth mask makes him feel like he can face anything. The sixth mask, however, haunts him. It stares at him through the walls of the drawer it’s in and almost seems to be waiting. Geoff doesn’t know what it’s waiting for, just that it’s almost malicious.

A few weeks after making the masks, Geoff finally understood them. He joined his boys in the masquerade, greeting them tearfully. He listened to all of their stories, to all of what really happened, and had to hit both Jack and Michael over the head for being suck idiots. There were still tears in his eyes when the doors at the end of the hallway opened, but they didn’t bother him. For the first time in months, Geoff had all of his boys and was complete. They walked together through the doorway, all holding hands. No matter what lay on the other side, they would not be separated again.


	8. Burnie's Mask Collection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The true end to the Mask series. I’m sorry this is so late.

It took three days for Burnie to find him. Or, more accurately, find the body. The room had an awful smell and at first Burnie had just thought Geoff to be in a rut or something. But one touch to a cold shoulder had sent him into a panic. A quick check showed him that there was no pulse, and no breath. He tried to give CPR, but after a few minutes Burnie had to admit it was useless, and called 911. Through the tears building in his eyes, he could see masks hanging over the bed. They called to him, and he pulled them down.

There was only five, and for some reason that was extremely wrong. While the sirens were still off in the distance, he checked the bedside table and found a sixth blank one. It was definitely the missing one he needed, but it just wasn't right yet. It wasn't what he needed. Burnie put the six masks in his bag and didn't mention them to the police when they arrived. Instead, he stayed with Geoff until they put him in a body bag and carried him away.

Burnie wasn't an idiot. He knew that one day the people around him would die. He just always hoped that somehow they wouldn't. That they'd secretly be immortals that would live and dick around together forever. It wasn't possible, he knew, but it was still better than the idea that six of the best people he'd ever met were just gone.

He was the one to take the call from the coroner. All he could of was how at the very least the Achievement Hunter crew wouldn't have to be subjected to this anymore. In a calm voice, the man on the phone told him that Mr. Ramsey had died of a stroke. That his body had clearly been mistreated for a while and it finally gave out against the abuse. How, by all honesty, Mr. Ramsey probably should have died long ago. Each moment in that phone call hurt and felt as if he was being torn apart. He talked with the coroner about one of his best friend's funeral, voice wavering with each moment more they spoke.

The week after Geoff was laid in the ground next to his five boys, Burnie watched every Achievement Hunter video they had ever recorded. He'd put them on as background noise when he went to sleep too, allowing their voices to wash over him and allow him to pretend they weren't dead, if only for a few moments longer. Each night he dreamt of a door he could never get through, knowing they were just on the other side. Yet, each morning when he woke, he couldn't remember anything. It was frustrating, knowing it was important.

At the end of the week, he forced himself to stop listening to every video. It was time to accept. Time to let the dead rest and live on while he still could. Burnie hated it- because accepting it felt like he was letting them down and forgetting them. He could never forget them. So he didn't let them go, and the masks never left his backpack. Occasionally his hand would brush over them when he grabbed for his laptop, but they still felt so wrong that it wasn't at all comforting.

Three weeks after Geoff's death, Burnie found himself with a pair of scissors and the sixth blank mask in his hand. He'd just woken up from what felt like a nightmare and all he could think of was the mask that had stared back at him through the door. Carefully, he cut it until it had a heart shape- if it was worn, the arcs were small enough that they would barely cover someone's eyebrows. He painted a small red splatter right in the middle and covered the rest in black. When it dried, he took the smallest brush he could find and added thin white lines that intersected with each other and ran the entire length of the mask- as if it was cracked.

Completed, suddenly his stolen mask collection didn't seem wrong. Didn't seem incomplete or discomforting- but whole and loving. Burnie took them to work with him the next day, and hung them up in a row in his office. He can't explain why they make him feel better. Why they help him cope with the sudden deaths he never wanted a little better. Why, with them, he can get through a minecraft recording without completely breaking down.

When he dreams after putting them all on his wall, the door is never closed. Burnie still can't remember when he wakes up, but with the mask he feels less like he lost some of the family he'd carefully collected over the years.


End file.
